With the introduction of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the console world moved to the x86 CPU architecture (or returned to it in the case of the Xbox). The current generation of these consoles has stayed true to that course and has been largely a success.
However, as Arm CPUs begin to make their way into the laptop world, the question is whether there are compelling reasons why future home consoles might switch to Arm. While I think that's unlikely, there are potentially a few reasons why the console giants might move to a different architecture.
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What's on your wishlist for the Switch 2?
New rumors about the Switch 2 are circulating every day. With Nintendo's most recent Nintendo Direct, they announced a whole bunch of games coming out near the end of the Switch's lifespan. They've publicly stated that this is the end of the Switch's lifespan and that the Switch 2 is coming out next year. As a lifelong Nintendo fan, I'm very excited about this. While I'm very excited for the final fall season of Switch games and the release of Metroid Prime 4 in 2025 (finally!), I can't help but think that this is a sign that the Switch 2 is getting closer. Nintendo often ends a console generation with a tentpole game that is the last game on one console and a launch title for the next. They did this with both Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Gamecube and Wii and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Wii U and Switch. It's safe to assume that this is the case with Prime 4. One can imagine that Prime 4 will be released in late-mid 2025, both as a swan song for the Switch and as the first tentpole title
4 Consoles have played around with architectures in the past
Source: Nikita Kostrykin via Unsplash
While things have been pretty stable on the PC side since the IBM-compatible clones overtook the microcomputer variety, consoles have (until recently) gone their own way in terms of architecture. Of course, it might have gone too far at some point, with the PlayStation 3 and its weird Cell Broadband processors. That's probably why Sony opted for the tried and tested x86 platform. Interestingly, before the advent of x86 consoles, consoles often used RISC CPUs in the last two generations, like the MIPS chip in the original PlayStation or the PowerPC processors in the Xbox 360. So even though Arm specifically wasn't included in traditional consoles (except for Switch), the RISC architecture was widely used.
Nevertheless, it would not be The It would be surprising in the context of the entire history of consoles if a next-generation console with Arm CPUs were announced.
3 Consoles may be at their thermal limits
Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consume around 200-220 watts under load, which seems to be the limit for their form factor and cooling systems. Both consoles require sophisticated cooling solutions to keep things quiet and under control, and it's not clear how the next generation of consoles will achieve a notable performance increase while still having similar power and cooling constraints.
The claim that Arm is inherently more energy efficient has been challenged, but ultimately the proof is in the testing. There are countless examples of Arm computers using much less power compared to x86 systems of similar performance. Although x86 could be made much more efficient, it would require significant investment.
2 Arm CPUs now have more than enough power
Arm CPUs have been powering our mobile phones for decades, and for most of that time they weren't particularly powerful. That was fine because we didn't need them much as long as our batteries lasted long enough to get us through a day. But as time went on, and especially with the advent of smartphones, phones became more and more powerful without a massive increase in power consumption.
These days, even mid-range phones have far more processing power than the average person needs, and higher-end devices can match the performance of desktop CPUs under certain conditions. Plug an Arm CPU into the wall and it can easily handle the demands of console video games. Finally, Apple Silicon processors are no slouch, and the latest Snapdragon Elite laptop CPUs are way ahead of the pack in terms of raw CPU performance.
1 Compatibility layers can work well (in a walled garden)
Backward compatibility is always a hot topic when it comes to gaming consoles. Gamers want the freedom to sell their previous console but not lose access to their game collection. This feature has been a gamble over the years. The PlayStation 5 is almost perfectly compatible with PlayStation 4 games, and the same goes for the Series X and Xbox One games. Because of these major architectural differences, the PlayStation 4 and 5 cannot play or even emulate PlayStation 3 games.
So what happens to the concept of backwards compatibility when future consoles switch to Arm? Well, there are various examples of varying quality. Apple leads the way here with its Rosetta 2 compatibility layer, which manages to run most x86 macOS apps, including AAA games, with minimal performance overhead. Of course, when we look at Windows for Arm and its Prism solution, things don't look so rosy. However, Apple has the same advantage as the console makers – complete control over the hardware and operating system. So it's basically possible that Arm consoles could run the x86 software of the previous generation of systems.
This probably won't happen
While anything is possible and Arm's impact on the personal computer space is undeniable, it's still unlikely that the major console makers will switch to Arm. Only Nintendo will stick with Arm with its upcoming Switch successor, as its console has moved to a hybrid mobile design. After all, the 3DS and DS already used Arm CPUs. The same was true for Sony's PlayStation Vita, by the way. As far as home consoles go, the ill-fated Ouya (for better or worse) counts, as does the Nvidia Shield, but that's basically a screenless Switch with higher clock speeds.
However, the Switch does bring up an interesting point regarding developer support for Arm consoles. By and large, developers seem to have been perfectly happy to develop or port Arm versions of their games to the Switch, and so I don't think there would be much resistance from game developers if Sony or Microsoft, er, switch If that happens, we could one day have slimmer, quieter and less power-hungry consoles under our TVs.